Hopper-type feeder for bobbin cores



' June 23, 1959 I Filed April 1, 1955 H. BECKERS 2,891,697

HOPPER-TYPE FEEDER FOR BOBBIN CORES I l 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 4

June 23, 1959 H. BECKERS HOPPER-TYPE FEEDER FOR BOBBIN CORES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 1. 1955 United States Patent 2,891,697 HOPPER-TYPE FEEDER FOR BOBBIN CORES Hans Beckers, M. Gladbach, Germany, assignor to Walter Reiners, M. Gladbach, Germany Application April 1, 1955, Serial No. 498,728 Claims priority, application Germany April 6, 1954 21 Claims. (Cl. 221-156) My invention relates generally to automatic feeders for orienting and conveying a sequence of elongated objects such as bobbin or coil cores, for example empty quills or core tubes, from a hopper to the operating units of a winding or other strand fabricating machine. In a more particular aspect, the invention relates to hoppertype core feeders for spinning machines, doubling frames, pirn and cop winders and other coiling and spooling machines for textile fabricating purposes, and for that reason is described below with particular reference to a feeder for supplying tubular cores to a cop winding machine.

It is known to deposit the tubes, as they come, into a hopper so that they lie interspersed and clustered in random fashion. For properly orienting the individual tubes prior to removing them from the hopper, a partition or sword is moved up and down in the hopper space so as to periodically form a narrow chamber at one side of the hopper space. This causes the adjacent tubes to either drop into the narrow chamber and thus to orient themselves along that chamber, or to fall back unoriented into the wider portion of the hopper space. The oriented tubes are then conveyed by grippers out of the chamber.

It has been found that the core tubes, usually consisting of a slender, slightly conical stem with a thick bulge at the wider end, may edge and may brace themselves against each other. As a result, they offer excessive resistance to being removed by the conveying grippers or cleats, or they may form most undesirable bridges across the chamber space. Such clamping and sticking of the tubes is sometimes promoted by the movement of the sword.

It is an object of my invention to obviate such defects, as well as the damage to the quill tubes and the stoppage of machine operation often resulting therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to minimize the possibility of clamping or sticking of the tubes along their conveying travel from the above-mentioned narrow chamber upwardly to the top point of conveying travel.

To attain these objects, and in accordance with a feature of my invention, I give one of the two walls of the narrow orienting chamber, that is either the reciprocating sword or the adjacent outer wall of the hopper, a resilient design or mounting so that it can yieldingly vary the width of the narrow chamber. Preferably, the hopper wall rather than the sword is constructed in this manner and, according to another feature of the invention, is pendulously suspended about its upper edge and biased by spring force. Preferably, the design is such that normally the narrow chamber partitioned off the hopper space is slightly tapered in the downward direction but becomes slightly divergent in that direction when the bias spring is stressed. That is, the yieldingly suspended hopper wall occupies an angular position of more than 90 relative to the horizontal when the bias spring is relaxed, and assumes an angular position of less than 90 when the spring is fully stressed.

By virtue of the fact that the chamber wall can yield during the up and'down movements of the sword, sticking of the core tubes in the chamber is no longer possible. After a short upward movement of the sword, the core tubes previously located in that area of the hopper space become dispersed so that only a few of them remain in the narrow chamber in oriented positions, and it has been found that the resiliently suspended wall can always yield sufiiciently to reliably obviate clamping of these few cores, thus affording the assurance that the tubes are always located in a direction favorable for trouble-free removal by the conveying grippers or cleats. Preferably, the spring biased path of travel of the yielding wall corresponds at least to the largest diameter of the core tube, i.e. to the largest dimension of the rod-shaped core body perpendicular to its longitudinal direction. However, a differently dimensioned distance of spring travel may also be favorable because the most suitable amount of spring travel may essentially depend upon the shape and dimensions of the particular core bodies being used.

The withdrawal of the pre-determined core body from the pre-orienting chamber of the hopper is effected along an incline. According to another feature of the invention, this incline is provided with a groove in which a series of grippers push the core bodies upwardly while these core bodies are located substantially within the groove. According to a more specific feature, the grippers are guided in a slot-shaped recess. It has been found that the width of the guiding slot is important for securing a satisfactoryoperation of the device. According to another feature of my invention, therefore, the width of the slot in the lower portion of the conveyor incline is narrower than the thinnest end of the core body. This prevents two or more core bodies from entering side by side into the conveyor slot. As a result, sticking of the core bodies is also prevented along their path of travel from the orienting chamber to the uppermost point of conveying travel.

According to still another feature of the invention, I provide the inclined elevator structure of the feeder device with guide pieces that are located within the ramp of the travel path of the core bodies and serve to urge the core bodies toward the above-mentioned conveyor groove to make certain that the cores, when being pushed upwardly, are located in the groove or slot. The guide pieces preferably consist of pyramid-shaped bodies or of bodies in the shape of a prismatic hump.

The foregoing and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from, and are hereafter described with reference to, the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows schematically a side elevation of a feeder device, partly in section and with some of the parts removed;

Fig. 2 is a sectional front view;

Fig. 3 shows schematically a portion of the conveyor incline, representing a core body before it has reached the vertical position and another core body after it has swung into vertical position;

Fig. 4 shows, on a larger scale, a partial front view of the orienting chamber, the view being in the same direction as that of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a perspective representation of part of the conveyor incline and shows a gripper and some of the guide pieces for urging the core bodies into the conveyor slot; and

Fig. 6 is a-schematic perspective view of a feeder according to. the preceding illustrations.

The illustrated hopper-type feeder has a frame structure 1 whose rear wall 1b and front fall 10 form together an enclosure which is upwardly extended by sheet metal walls id, is to enclose an inclined elevator structure. The frame structure supports a hopper generally denoted by 8. The hopper is supplied with empty quills or core tubes such as those shown at T in Figs. 3, 4 and 6. The purpose of the feeder device is to preorient the randomly arranged tubes and to individually convey them upwardly through the elevator structure to an uppermost point of travel from which the tubes are discharged onto a run-off conveyor R (Fig. 6) from which ultimately they reach the individual winding units of a cop winding machine.

Located in the space enclosed by the walls 1b, 10, 1a, 12 is an endless conveyor equipped with a conveyor chain 6 trained over sprockets 3, 4 and 5 (Figs. 1, 2). Sprocket 3 is driven by an electric motor M (Fig. 6) preferably through a slip clutch (not illustrated). inserted into the chain 6 or otherwise attached thereto are a number of grippers or cleats 7 which are preferably evenly spaced from each other. The cleats or grippers, during their travel, enter from below into the space in hopper 8 and are at first guided in a slot 9 formed between two cheek faces 10 and 11. The check faces 1% and 11 are inclined toward each other (Figs. 4, 5) so as to form a groove. Each gripper 7 has a wedge-like upwardly tapering shape. 10 and 11 merge with respective planar surface portions 13 and 14 of an inclined structure along which the grippers and any core tubes entrained thereby travel upwardly. Mounted on the inclined surfaces 13 and 14 are a number of guide pieces which are shaped either according to a pyramid 15 or are similar to a prismatic ski slope or hump 16.

The hopper 8 has three inclined side walls 8a, 8b and 80, while the fourth hopper wall 17 is approximately perpendicular and is mounted for pendulous movement about a pivot rod 18 extending along the upper edge of the wall. Wall 17 is biased by a spring 19 which abuts against the rear wall 1b of the housing structure. The yielding movement of wall 17 is limited by the head portion of a bolt 20 which is mounted on the housing wall 1b and cooperates with a bracket 21 fastened to the wall 17.

Located opposite the displaceable hopper 17 is a partition 22 which can move upwardly and downwardly about a pivot pin 23 as is indicated in Fig. 2 by a double headed arrow x. The partition 22 is driven from a crank pin on sprocket wheel 3 through a connecting rod 24. When the partition 22 moves upwardly it separates a narrow chamber from the rest of the hopper space. During the upward stroke, the tubes in the hopper are forced either to fall toward the right-hand side (Figs. 2, 6) of partition 22 into the major portion of the hopper space or, if they can fall to the left side of the partition, to move into a position which has at least one component perpendicular to the plane of illustration of Fig. 2. Consequently, the few partitionedoff tubes, previously directed at random, are thus given a preliminary orientation. As a result, they drop in front of the grippers 7 and are pushed upwardly by the grippers along the incline of the elevator structure. During upward travel, the tubes slide upon the grooveforming cheek faces 1t), 11 or on the planar faces 13, 714 of the incline. During the conveying travel the tubes pass over the pyramidic humps 15 which tend to equalize their position and to push the tubes into the groove and slot formed by the cheeks 1t and 11. When thereafter the tubes are pushed forward and upward along the prismatic hump-like elements 16, the tubes if they are in the position of the lower tube in Fig. 3 can orient themselves vertically while the slender stern portion of the tubes enters into the widened portion 25 of the conveyor slot. However, even when the position of the tube during the upward travel is just the reverse, the tube becomes oriented to the desired vertical position. The difference resulting from the two tube The cheek faces positions lies only in the fact that in the first-mentioned case the tube stem swings along a pendulous movement in the clockwise direction relative to Fig. 3, while in the second case the tube stem tips over the upper edges 1%, 31!) (Fig. 5) of the respective cheeks 1h, 11 and then swings counterclockwise into the vertical direction. As soon as the tubes have thus reached the vertically-suspended position, a trouble-free conveyance to the top of the elevator structure is secured so that, when top point of the conveying feeder, the tub .d to any suitable conveying device, such as the run-off structure R shown in Fig. 6 which places the tubes into individual pockets of a conveyor belt running along a number of winding or other fabricating uni.

The from. side of each gripper 7 is preferably so directed that this surface forms an angle a of less than (Fig. 3) with the adjacent upper inclined face of elements l6 and consequently also with the side of the elevator incline. This has the effect that the core body is additionally urged into the conveyor groove by the movement of the gripper. A wedge-shaped configuration of the grippers 7, as illustrated, has been found particularly favorable because, if several core bodies should simultaneously arrive and cluster in front of a gripper, they are given sufficient space for dispersion of the cluster. Due to the wedge-shaped gripper structure, two or more of the simultaneously entrained core bodies then slide off the gripper toward the right and toward the left until only one core body remains. The stripped ofi core bodies then may drop into the range of the next following gripper. As described, this dispersing operation is aided by the above-described guiding pieces (f5, f6) located in the range of the plane of the conveyor incline.

in order to pass the core bodies from the feeder to a conveyor equipped with receiving pockets or troughs for the individual cores or to issue the cores to any other conveying device, it is preferable that the core bodies always arrive at the top of the feeder device in such a position that the bulging end of the cores lies on top and the rod-shaped portion is downwardly suspended. The above-described widening of the conveyor slot at 25 in the upper portion of the elevator incline serves to secure this position of the cores. The widened slot 25 is so dimensioned that the stem portion of the core body can completely enter, while the bulging end portion rests upon the adjacent faces 13, 14 of the incline structure. As shown, the widened portion 25 of the slot preferably commences beneath a hump 16 (Fig. 5), and the spacing between the edge of the widened slot and the surface of the hump is larger than the distance of the bulging end from the narrow end of the core body. However in this case too, the shape and the location of the gravity center of the core body are to be considered. Consequently, for use with core bodies other than those described above, a different spacing may be preferable, especially in view of the fact that the angle of inclination of the conveyor incline relative to the horizontal must also be taken into consideration. It is important that the core body, when travelling past the prismatic guide pieces 16, cannot pass from the stable into the labile position even if the core body, due to remaining momentum, should still be tum bling or swinging.

An automatic feeder according to the invention. eliminates the difficulties heretofore encountered whenattempting to use one and the same feeder device for the orienting and feeding of cores of different shapes and sizes. That is, a feeder device according to the present invention can be used or readily adapted for a variety of types and sizes of bobbin cores. This greatly enlarges the field of application for such feeders and makes them applicable for the production of bobbins and cops of different finished shapes and sizes thus signifying the operation in spinning, coiling and weaving plants.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon a study of this disclosure that my invention permits of various modifications as regards design, number and arrangement of the individual components, lay-out of the entire device aswell as its particular application, and thus can be given embodiments other than the one specifically illustrated and described, without departing from the essential features of my invention and within the scope of the claims annexed hereto,

What is claimed is: I

l. A feeder apparatus for elongated coil cores, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for unoriented cores, an upwardly and downwardly reciprocable partition wall in said hopper, said hopper having a side wall located near and facing said partition wall so that said partition wall when moving upwardly divides a narrow chamber off said hopper space for orienting the cores in said chamber, the said chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper side wall being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said partition and being capable of movement away from said partition, and an elevator structure forming an upwardly extending incline and having a portion of said incline extend from above down along one of the narrow sides of said chamber toward the bottom of said chamber, said elevator structure having a groove in said incline portion and having cleats upwardly movable in said groove for pushing the oriented cores in said groove out of said chamber.

2. A feeder apparatus for elongated coil cores, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for unoriented cores, an upwardly and downwardly reciprocable partition wall disposed in said hopper, said hopper having a side wall located near and facing said partition wall so that said partition wall when moved upwardly divides a narrow chamber off said hopper space for orienting the cores lengthwise in said chamber, the said chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper side wall being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said partition wall so as to be capable of movement laterally away from said partition, an upwardly extending elevator incline extending from above down along one of the twonarrow sides of said chamber to the bottom of said chamber, said incline having a slot extending longitudinally along said incline, cleats upwardly movable in said slot for pushing the oriented cores upwardly along said slot, said slot having in said chamber a lowermost portion of a width smaller than the width of said slot above said chamber and smaller than the thinnest end of said cores.

3. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlarged portion, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, a partition wall disposed in said hopper, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable, said hopper having a wall located near and facing said partition wall so that said partition wall when moved upwardly divides a narrow chamber off said hopper space for orienting the cores lengthwise in said chamber, the said chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper wall being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said partition wall so as to be capable of movement laterally away from said partition wall, an elevator incline extending from above along one of the two narrow sides of said chamber to the bottom of said chamber, said elevator incline having a slot extending longitudinally along the bottom of said incline, cleats upwardly movable in said slot for pushing the oriented cores upward along the slot, each of said cleats having a front surface facing upwardly and forming with said elevator incline an angle of less than 90.

4. A feeder apparatus for elongated coil cores, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for unoriented cores, a partition wall disposed in said hopper, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable,

said hopper havinga sidewall located near and facing so as to be capable of movement laterally away from said partition, an elevator incline extending from above along one of the two narrow sides of said chamber to the bottom of said chamber, said incline having a groove and a slot extending longitudinally in said groove, cleats upwardly movable in said slot for pushing the oriented cores upward in said groove, each of said cleats having a portion upwardly projecting out of said groove, said cleat portion having a wedge-shape and tapering upwardly at the sides.

5. A feeder apparatus according to claim 1, and further including pyramid-shaped guide bodies fixed upon and projecting upwardly from said elevator incline and each having a corner directed toward said groove for urging the cores into said groove.

6. A feeder apparatus according to claim 3, and further including guide bodies projecting upwardly from said elevator incline and forming a hump alongside said slot and each having a corner directed toward said slot for urging the cores into said slot.

TIA feeder apparatus according to claim 2 for use with bobbin cores having a stem portion and a bulge at one end of said stem portion, said slot providing a step where said lowermost slot portion of smaller width ends and the upper slot portion of larger width begins, said larger width being wider than the diameter of the stem portion of the cores, whereby the stem portion of the cores being conveyed enters into said slot when passing upwardly beyond said step and continues traveling in vertically suspended position.

8. A feeder apparatus according to claim 7, and a pair of guide bodies fixed upon and upwardly projecting from said incline on both sides respectively of said groove and formingrespective upwardly inclining surfaces in the path of the bulge of the cores being conveyed, said inclined surfaces of the guide bodies being upwardly spaced from said step formed by said slot and being positioned to lift the bulge portion of each core and to permit the stem portion to drop down between the guide bodies and into therupper wider slot portion.

9, A feeder apparatus for a series of elongated objects, which object comprises a stem portion and an enlarged portion of wider diameter than the stem portion, the apparatus comprising a hopper for the unoriented objects, means in the hopper to segregate and at least partially orient a portion of the contents, which means forms a narrowed chamber therein, an upwardly inclined slotted member whose lower portion forms an inclined bottom wall of the said narrowed chamber and extends in the longer direction thereof, cleats moving upwardly in the slot of said member to push the elongated objects along the slot, each of said cleats having a front surface extendingv upwardly and forming with said elevator incline an angle of less than the lower portion of the slot of said slotted member being narrower than the stem portions of the elongated objects, the upper portion of the slot being wider than said stem portion but narrower than the enlarged portion, stationary guide bodies which are disposed on opposite sides of the slot in the region where the narrow slot portion ends and the wider portion begins and which provide upwardly inclined lifting surfaces disposed sufliciently close to each other to lift the enlarged portion of each object and sufliciently far apart to permit the stem portion to drop down therebetween and into the upper wider slot portion.

10. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects, which object comprises a stem portion and an enlarged portion of wider diameter than the stern portion, the apparatus comprising means providing an elongated chamber for the elongated objects, an upwardly inclined slotted member whose lower portion forms an inclined bottom wall of the elongated chamber and extends in the direction of elongation, cleats moving upwardly in the slot to push the elongated objects along the slot, each of said cleats having a front surface extending upwardly, the lower portion of the slot of said slotted-member-being narrower than the stem portions of the elongated objects, the upper portion of the slot being wider than said stem portion but narrower than the enlarged portion, stationary guide bodies which are disposed on opposite sides of the slot in the region where the narrow slot portion ends and the wider portion begins and which provide upwardly inclined lifting surfaces disposed sufficiently 'close together to lift the enlarged portion of each object and sufiiciently far apart to permit the stern portion to drop down therebetween and into the upper-wider slot portion.

11. The apparatus defined in claim 1 in which the groove of said incline is provided by opposed downwardly and inwardly inclined stationary edge portions separated to form a slot, the longitudinally oriented cores being pushed along the groove above the slot by the cleats.

12. The apparatus defined in claim 3, and in which the lower portion of the slot is narrower than the stern portions of the elongated objects,-the upper portion of the slot being wider than said stern portion but narrower than the enlarged portion, stationary guide bodies which are disposed on opposite sides of the slot in the region where the narrow slot portion ends and the wider portion begins and which provide upwardly inclined lifting surfaces disposed sufficiently close together to lift the enlarged portion of each object, and sufliciently'far apart to permit the stern portion to drop down therebetween and into the upper and wider slot portion.

13. A feeder apparatus for a series of elongated objects which comprises a stem portion and an enlarged portion of wider diameter than the stem portion, the apparatus comprising means providing a chamber for the objects, and for at least partially orienting the objects in a given direction, an upwardly inclined slotted member which is extended in said direction and whose lower portion forms an inclined bottom wall of the said chamber, cleats moving upwardly in the slot of said member to push the elongated objects along the slot, each of said cleats having a front surface extending upwardly, the lower portion of the slot of said slotted member being narrower than the stern portions of the elongated objects, the upper portion of the slot being wider than said stern portion but narrower than the enlarged portion, guide bodies which are disposed on opposite sides of the slot in the region where the narrow slot portion ends and the wider portion begins and which provide upwardly inclined lifting surfaces disposed sufificiently close to each other to lift the enlarged portion of each object and sufiiciently far apart to permit the stem portion to drop down therebetween and into the upper wider slot portion.

14. A feeder apparatus for a series of elongated objects which object comprises a stem portion and an enlarged portion of wider diameter than the stem portion, the ap paratus comprising means providing an elongated chamher for the elongated objects, an upwardly inclined slotted member whose lower portion forms an inclined bottom wall of the elongated chamber and extends in the direction of elongation, wedge-shaped cleats moving upwardly in the slot to push the elongated objects along the slot, each of said cleats tapering upwardly at the sides and having a front surface extending upwardly and forming with said elevator incline an angle of less than 90, the lower portion of the slot of said slotted member being narrower than the stern portions of the elongated objects, the upper portion of the slot being wider than said stem portion but narrower than the enlarged portion, stationary guide bodies which are disposed on opposite sides of the slot'in the region where the narrow slot portion ends and the wider portion beings and which provide upwardly inclined lifting surfaces disposed sufiiciently close together to lift the enlarged portion of each object and sufliciene ly far apart to permit the stem portion to drop down therebetween and into the upper and wider slot portion.

15. The apparatus defined in claim 13 in which a groove is provided along the incline, which groove is formed of opposed downwardly and inwardly inclined stationary edge portions separated to form the said slit, the longitudinally oriented cores being pushed along the groove by the cleats.

16. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlargement in diameter, comprising a downwardly tapering hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, a movable partition wall disposed in said hopper, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall, said hopper having a wall located near and facing said movable wall, said movable wall when moved upwardly dividing a narow chamber off said hopper space, which narrow chamber extends downwardly at least to the deepest spot of the receiving space of the hopper, some of the elongated objects being forced, during the periodic upward movement of said partition wall, to orient themselves lengthwise in said narrow chamber, and others to move to the other part of the hopper-receiving space, the narrow chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper wall and said partition wall forming opposite longitudinal walls of the narrow chamber, one of said two walls being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said other wall so as to be capable of yielding laterally away from said other wall, and means to convey away a sequence of said oriented elongated objects from said narrow chamber.

17. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlargement in diameter, comprising a downwardly tapering hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, a movable partition wall disposed in said hopper, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall, said hopper having a wall so located with respect to said partition that said partition when periodical ly moving upwardly divides a narrow chamber off said hopper space, the narrow chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, which narrow chamber extends downwardly at least to the deepest spot of the receiving space of the hopper, some of the elongated objects being forced, during the periodic upward movement of said partition wall, to orient themselves lengthwise in said narrow chamber, and others to move to the other part of the hopper-receiving space, said hopper wall forming a longitudinal Wall of said narrow chamber and being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said partition wall so as to be capable of movement laterally away from said partition wall, and means to convey away sequence of said oriented elongated objects from said narrow chamber.

18. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlargement in diameter, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, said hopper having a side wall, a partition wall disposed in said hopper facing said side wall, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable to periodically separate a narrow chamber from said space for orienting the elongated objects in said chamber, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall, the narrow chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, some of the elongated objects being forced, during the periodic upward movement of said partition wall, to orient themselves lengthwise in said narrow chamber, and others to move to the other part of the hopperrecei-ving space, said hopper side wall forming a longitudinal wall of said narrow chamber, and having an upper edge and being pivotally mounted longitudinally of said edge for movement relative to said partition wall, spring means biasing said wall to a given position toward said partition Wall, and means to convey away a sequence of said oriented elongated objects from said narrow chamber.

19. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlargement in diameter, comprising a downwardly tapering hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, said hopper having an upwardly extending side wall, a partition wall disposed in said hopper near said side wall, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable to periodically separate a narrow chamber from said space, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall, which narrow chamber extends downwardly at least to the deepest spot of the receiving space of the hopper, some of the elongated objects being forced, during the periodic upward movement of said partition wall, to orient themselves length wise in said narrow chamber, and others to move to the other part of the hopper-receiving space, the narrow chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said partition wall and hopper side wall forming opposite longitudinal walls of said narrow chamber, the hopper side wall being pivotally mounted on a longitudinally extending pivot, for movement relative to said partition wall, spring means biasing said side Wall toward said partition wall, and stop means engageable by said wall and forming for said wall a stop position in which said wall has a given maximum spacing from said partition, said wall having from said stop position a path of travel at least as large as the largest diameter of the cores, and conveyor means to carry away a sequence of said oriented elongated objects, the conveyor means being disposed adjacent a lower part of the narrow chamber.

20. A feeder apparatus for bobbin cores, comprising a hopper forming a receiving space for unoriented cores, said hopper having an upwardly extending side wall, a partition wall disposed in said hopper near said side wall, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable to periodically separate a narrow chamber from said space, which narrow chamber extends downwardly at least to the deepest spot of the receiving space of the hopper, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall to orient the cores in said chamber, the said chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper side wall forming a longitudinal wall of the narrow chamber, and having an upper edge and being pivotally mounted longitudinally of said edge for movement relative to said partition wall, spring means engaging said hopper side wall for biasing it to- Ward said partition and toward a position of minimum spacing therefrom, stop means for determining a position of maximum spacing from said partition, said chamber having a cross-sectional shape slightly diverging in the downward direction when said wall is in said position of maximum spacing, and means to remove the oriented cores from below said narrow chamber, and to convey them away in sequence.

21. A feeder apparatus for elongated objects having an enlargement in diameter, comprising a downwardly tapering hopper forming a receiving space for the unoriented objects, a movable partition wall disposed in said hopper, said partition wall being upwardly and downwardly reciprocable, means to periodically so reciprocate the partition wall, said hopper having a wall located near and facing said movable wall, said movable wall when moved upwardly dividing a narrow chamber 01f said hopper space, which narrow chamber extends downwardly at least to the deepest spot of the receiving space of the hopper, some of the elongated objects being forced, during the periodic upward movement of said partition wall, to orient themselves lengthwise in said narrow chamber, and others to move to the other part of the hopper-receiving space, the narrow chamber being narrower than the length of the elongated objects, said hopper wall and said partition wall forming opposite longitudinal walls of the narrow chamber, one of said two Walls being yieldingly mounted and being spring biased toward said other wall so as to be capable of yielding laterally away from said other wall, and an elevator structure forming an upwardly extending incline and having a portion of the incline extending from above down along a narrow side of the narrow chamber, to receive a sequence of said oriented elongated objects from the narrow chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 415,726 Matzeliger Nov. 26, 1889 484,253 Senner Oct. 11, 1892 672,331 Peck Apr. 16, 1901 1,365,507 Krupa Jan. 11, 1921 1,993,474 Brackett Mar. 5, 1935 2,649,214 Kirby et al. Aug. 18, 1953 ,712,883 Esposito et al. July 12, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,065,789 France Ian. 13, 1954 

